Stepping into the room, I wasn’t sure what I was walking into. It was a good-looking room of people - a really good-looking group! - with the broadest range of abilities I’ve seen in one place. Some were dressed professionally, while others looked hip enough to put any Mission hipster to shame. The thing that stood out to me in that room was how everyone there was proud in their own bodies, and truly authentic in how they embraced that.

“It’s not about looking ‘normal,’ it’s about looking good.”

One of the first folks I met was Karin, who has a blog where she posts at least one selfie per day. She explained to me how, being a plus-size woman in a wheelchair, she does not exactly fit the profile of what people consider to be beautiful. Being in a wheelchair, people often stare. Karin is using the selfie to embrace those stares, and to take control of how the world sees her by posting photos where she feels good about how she looks.

Design for the marginalized and make it available for the mainstream.

The event started with a panel consisting of Tobie Hatfield, Nike’s Senior Director of Innovation, Matthew Waltzer, a student who has been giving Tobie user feedback, and Kathy Woods, Founder of Kathy D. Woods Design. Pradeep Sharma, Provost of RISD, was the moderator. The conversation was largely around the design work that Nike has been doing. They have been designing for Matthew. Their intent is not to develop a specific product for a marginalized demographic such as his - rather, they recognize that modifications that benefit Matthew will make their product more user-friendly for the general population. This is a theme that has come up for us a lot lately: how can we make our environments and products easier for everyone to use? If products and environments shift to be easier and more inclusive, what impact could this have on how we see and understand disability?

“It starts with listening.”

User-centered design was pervasive throughout this event. We’ve seen this look one of two ways - each of which has its own benefits. The first is for the designer to consult with and get feedback from the user, and that input informs the next iteration of the design. There are a number of ways to get this input (e.g. observation, conversation, survey), and the conscientious designer understands the issue on a deep enough level to address it at its roots.

In the other approach, designer and user are the same. Rather than the designer learning the needs, the user learns to design. Not only is the user developing a powerful life (and potentially professional) skill, but - especially in the case of a differently-abled population - this challenges the dynamic of the “helper” and the “helped.” Besides, that user knows her needs better than anyone ever will, and can continue to design her own solutions as they evolve. Kathy on the panel was an exceptional example of this. She is a little person, developing a sleek clothing line that is flattering for little people.

KIDmob’s design ethos and our call to Designers

For any group we work with, regardless of age or ability, we prefer a hybrid of these two approaches to user-centered design, where user = designer and has the support of a design professional through the process. As designers, it can be tough to put our ideas and egos to the side to create space for others, but there is an immense amount to gain if we do: a different understanding of the challenge, that individual’s unique creativity and perspective, and their “beginner’s mind” when it comes to design. As we’ve seen in our work, true collaboration like this - where the user is truly driving the design - offers incredible potential for unexpected insight and solutions.

Superhero Cyborgs 2.0 was about reframing disability as opportunity by inviting kids with upper limb difference to create their own body mods. If prosthetics intend to replace a missing limb, why stop there when we could build a device that could do literally almost anything?

Early April, San Francisco's Market Street was in the midst of a creativity bonanza with the Market Street Prototyping Festival (MSPF)! KIDmob had a chance to be a part of this exciting moment, in partnership with Philly-based Public Workshop, CA College of the Arts, and a group of middle-school aged makers from The San Francisco Friends School, Everett Middle School, and The French American School. This project was made possible by a generous grant from Southern Exposure. .

MSPF 2015 is a place-making initiative sponsored by the Knight Foundation and led by the San Francisco Planning Department along with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The festival was a way for the whole city to come together and re-invent Market Street, with 50 teams chosen to create playful gestures to invite public life into the transit corridor.

KIDmob's prototype was called the Adaptive Playscape - the prototype was designed and built fully by a mob of middle schoolers. In a festival of big ideas, it only seemed appropriate that the kids of San Francisco should also have the opportunity to share theirs!

Traditional prosthetics generally try to replace a missing body part with a device that looks and functions like the missing part. What if we embrace this body modification as a cyborgian additional to ourselves? What if this body modification could function in a way that the body can't? This workshop explored the question: if not a hand, then what?

Recently, the mob teamed up with The Girls' Middle School to empower some of their students to build an elevated structure on a preexisting site. The girls worked with power tools, as well as different materials, in one week to design and build their structure. To accomplish this, they split into groups of designers and builders, every day presenting them with a new task. At the beginning or each new problem, the girls struggled with the tools and materials we presented them. However, as the week progressed, they began to build upon each other's ideas. This allowed them to design and build something that was both durable and usable, as well as incredibly creative.

Through the week, the designers accomplished making their own pillows, curtains, bookshelves, and learned a little about budgeting in the process. Meanwhile, by the end of the week, the builders were moving with ease around the table saw, jigsaw, drill, impact driver, etc. The girls did not stay put in one group, however, and were able to go between the groups to work on the projects that truly interested them. This also allowed the groups to work together to solve unforeseen Wild Cards, therefore ending the week with a beautiful structure that they can now play on throughout the school day, as well as a new confidence in what they can do with the right resources.

A huge thank you goes out to the parents of these young ladies and to GMS, for entrusting us with your girls and for making this week possible!

Teachers from all four Plumas County public schools (Greenville, Chester, Portola, and Quincy), and representatives from Indian Valley Academy and the local charter school community, got together for a 3-day workshop around hands-on learning and the design approach. This event was the third in a three-part series sponsored by Feather River College as a part of their community outreach and Career + Technical Education initiatives.

Last weekend, thanks to Feather River College, 150 8th graders in Plumas County were exposed to 15 STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) careers with a design thinking spin, in an amazing one-day workshop.

This weekend, the mob returned to Greenville, CA for a special workshop: to teach 3D printing and the design process to teacher and student "Champions," who are committed to bringing 3D printing and the design process into their classrooms. All of Plumas County's public schools were represented by teachers and students alike. This workshop - the first part of a three-event series funded by Feather River College - is aimed at initiating systemic change in the county's public schools from traditional education, to hands-on learning and design thinking. The second event will be the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art/Design, and Math) Fair, which intends to ignite interest of the student body in STEAM, and for our Champion Teachers to test out KIDmob's approach. Each school will get a FabLab Box, including a 3D printer, hot glue guns, and other tools, to bring back to their school.

This is the first workshop we've done with students and teachers together - we're excited to use this format in future workshops, it was incredibly successful (and fun!)

The Youth Design Summit 2014 took place in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Students attended from Rebuild Globally (Port-au-Prince), The Union School-Haiti (Port-au-Prince), and Indian Valley Academy (Greenville, California). Each student group presented a local challenge related to education, and all of the students collaborated to design solutions for each of these local challenges. Though the projects were important, they were not the primary goal of YDS; rather, our focus was on empathy building and cross-cultural exchange.

We had a fantastic time hosting a booth at Lakeshore Elementary's recent PTA Fundraiser: "Supehero Saturday." KIDmob provided a tinkering popup, so that kids could drop by and use a variety of materials to transform themselves into Superheros for the day. We also had a 3D printer hard at work creating parts for another Robohand, a draw-it-yourself character stand for all of the little artists out there, and a good-smelling popcorn machine to add to the fun. Kids explored materials, devising capes and masks and exoskeletons, learned about 3D printing prosthetics, and had a generally hands-on good time. Thank you to all of the parents and kids who made it out to our booth, to our awesome team, Maia, Kate, and Kadi, and to the wonderful folks at Lakeshore Elementary, Mimi Rosenheim and Ranu Mukhergee, who invited us to join for the day. We look forward to our next collaboration!

Lighthouse Community Charter School is home to a Creativity Lab, a community space welcome to all, a buzzing hub of maker education. Aaron Vanderwerff and the folks of the Creativity Lab offer access to maker guidance, space to work, tours, professional development, and supplies for all who come. Some of those supplies include 3D printing technology and a vinyl cutter, which is where the KIDmob team came in. Our brief: How might educators (not just Creativity Lab teachers) in the school community integrate these existing on-campus tools into their curricula? KIDmob, in partnership with Lighthouse Community Charter School and made possible through a grant from the eBay Giving Foundation, created a one-day professional development workshop aimed at exploring that question, as well as familiarizing Lighthouse educators to working with the on-campus resources (in particular the 3D printer and vinyl cutter). We had a fun and intensive day of brainstorming ideas and getting to know the machines. It was incredibly fascinating to observe how different teachers envisioned the tools fitting into their classes, from 12th grade Science to 2nd grade Art. A big thank you to all of the great Lighthouse teachers that we had the opportunity to work with - you guys are an inspiration!

KIDmob is excited to launch our newest initiative: the Superhero Cyborgs workshop! We are going to be providing an ongoing build your own prosthetics workshop for kids. Imagine a prosthetic hand that can not only grip and pick things up, but also acts as a nerf shooter, or a solar powered battery pack, or has a built in extendable back scratcher! We hope to explore as many ideas as the kids can dream up, through the KIDmob design framework approach. Our first workshop will be this July, in Providence, Rhode Island. For more information or to apply online, click here. This project would not be possible without the generous support of our project partners, The Helping Hands Foundation and Brown University School of Engineering. Are you a corporation interested in sponsoring this awesome project? Contact Kadi Franson: Kadi@kidmob.org.

Thanks to you, we reached our funding goal! A big shout out to the friends, family, organizations, and believers that supported our Kickstarter campaign! To the 201 folks who contributed funding, the 682 of you who facebook shared the page, the hundreds of tweeters who tweeted it up, our friends at GOOD.is and all the other folks who helped to spread the word - we could not have done this without you! Much like everything we've done at KIDmob, this work would truly not be possible without a solid foundation of encouragement, love, and belief in what is possible from our network - you guys are the best.

After a long flight and saddle bagged with lots of supplies, Kate, Patima, and Tyler landed in Haiti yesterday. True to KIDmob form, the team hit the ground running - the 2014 Youth Design Summit, bridging creativity internationally, is now officially underway! Three groups of kids from different backgrounds, cultures, and geographies are now getting ready to meet one another for the first time, break the ice, and dive into some intensive creative problem solving. Using the design process as a common language, these kids are going to be tackling community opportunities local to each group. What will they come up with? Stay posted for updates live from the workshop in Port-au-Prince, launching on April 10th!

Plans for April's Youth Design Summit are officially underway! We've completed workshops with all of the students invited to attend. Through building familiarity with KIDmob's process, we have worked hard to establish a common language around design. Our hopes are that this common language will provide a unified framework within which students can effectively work together across varying cultures, languages, and backgrounds. Students from Indian Valley Academy (IVA), The Union School Haiti, and Rebuild Globally's Youth Apprenticeship program will converge for a week-long intensive workshop. During this week, they will all be working together with a shared goal: to design solutions to address an issue local to each community.

As part of an effort to build student relationships prior to the Youth Summit, we've conducted an international artifact exchange. The students' next task will be to create a narrative around the artifacts they have received: Why are they important? Who owned them? We'll continue to build these connections as we lay the groundwork leading up to April. All students are on board and excited - the pieces are falling into place!

Next big step: KIDmob is launching a crowd funding campaign to make this trip happen. Your contribution will cover the workshop costs, so that we may invite all of the students to attend for free. This is one crucial way for us to set a stage where everyone will have an equal voice. Every donation counts - please consider helping out!

We had an amazing two weeks with our Haitian counterparts at the iLab! KIDmob focused this trip on helping the iLab team define future goals and strategies in order to continue working towards our shared goal: to cultivate a positive and self-sustaining program. This included brainstorming how to effectively execute the iLab vision, as well as how to leverage available resources - namely, the internet - to acquire the skills needed to move forward. The team spent time working on the business model, and we are enthusiastic to report that they are negotiating a couple of new contracts!

As we look towards the future, we are excited to move KIDmob more and more into a position of support, encouragement, and mentorship. We are confident that this all-star team will be able to make it happen. They're steering the ship: we're excited to see where they will take it, and we are committed to helping them get there! If you would like to contribute your ideas to the iLab, post comments below!

If there is one thing everyone at The Union School Haiti can agree on, it’s that their cafeteria system isn’t working. After 10 Union high school students interviewed peers, faculty, and staff, they found that there is not enough room for everyone in the cafeteria. There is a seating shortage due to backpacks being left on tables and benches, trays are scattered everywhere, and people become pushy in line because the wait is so long.

First, the high school students noticed that the small lockers in the corner of the cafeteria are rarely used. After a brainstorming session, they suggested removing the unused lockers and replacing them with a cubby and hook system. Due to material constraints, the students used old textbooks and wood to frame out the cubbies.

Then, the students suggested another register be added. This would allow the congested line to split in two, thus, improving the flow and reducing pushiness. The students brainstormed about an organizational system for the discarded trays, plates, and silverware. They thought, why not mount units on the tops of the trash cans to hold and organize these items? Then students can clean up efficiently after themselves.

We hope these changes will improve lunch for everyone in the school community! And we look forward to working with this group of students again at the Youth Summit in April!